More coffee chatter

    & nbsp;   In his book Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World, author Mark Pendergrast wrote:  “A good cup of coffee can turn the worst day tolerable, can provide an all-important moment of contemplation, can rekindle a romance.”  I believe that, but it’s hard to believe how coffee influenced the following people:

    & nbsp;    One time a friend of mine was planning to jump ship to our company because he was afraid his company will transfer them to another state.  Our company liked his credentials but offered just to match his current salary instead of increasing it.  This made him think twice since his concern might not even materialize and he didn’t want to make the necessary adjustments of working for a new company.  It didn’t surprise me when he decided to stay but his reason for staying completely shocked me.  He said he decided to stay because we didn’t offer free coffee and his company does!  I thought he was just trying to be funny.  But when he told me that it will set him back $1,260 a year, I started to think that maybe, just maybe, he is serious.  Now when he rattled the computation: $0.75 per cup x 7 cups he drinks every day x 240 working days a year = $1,260, I thought this guy is freakin’ crazy.  I never spoke to him again.  Till he invited me over for a cup of coffee.

    & nbsp;   Are you a coffee connoisseur who likes to taste all kinds of coffee including exotic ones like the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee or the Kona coffee of Hawaii?  How about the most expensive one, the Kopi Luwak of Indonesia?  If so, then get ready to spend a staggering $600 per pound!  According to dreamship.com the price reflects not only the unique flavor and rarity of the coffee, but also the “strangeness of processing”.  The coffee comes from the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi of said archipelago.  In these islands lives a small tree-dwelling marsupial.  It only eats the ripest, reddest coffee cherries.  After digesting them, these animals then excrete the beans fairly intact, still wrapped in layers of the cherries’ mucilage.  The locals then gather these beans and turn them into coffee!  Now as a coffee lover, you know how much I hate to say this: technically, the world’s most expensive coffee comes from monkey poop.  Don’t get me wrong, I also love animals and I’m all for recycling.  But to this, I say give me the human-hand-picked-straigh t-from-the-tree variety.

    & nbsp;   Americans’ love for coffee spurt the growth of coffee chains like Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, and myriad of others  (One cafe here in Utah is called Badass Cafe).  What if one day you wake up and decided to do something that if you achieve, will definitely make you a one truly unique individual.  What if you decided to challenge your self of visiting every Starbucks in the world?  Yup, in the world.  Not just in the US, or in North America.  In the world.  Folks believe it or not, someone is already doing this.  His name is Winter and his writing his incredible journey at starbuckseverywhere.net.  So far he has visited more than 4,400 stores including 4361 in North America, 114 in the UK, and 53 in Japan!  May the power of caffeine be with you Winter.  And to all of us who loves coffee!